I agree, that line is brilliant and I remember the first day I ever saw it.

I am very curious to hear why you believe that “it is the most brilliant thing to ever appear on a package”.

This simple tag has appeared on nearly every Apple product or package in at least the last decade. (I couldn’t find any definitive answer as to how long it’s been in use, but I remember it distinctly on the iPod packaging in early 2000’s.)

What’s great about this phrase is that it’s powerful on more than one level.

Presentation

Designed by Apple in California is usually presented dramatically and in isolation. Often you see it after opening a flap or unfolding a panel. It stands alone as a single line of type on a solid field. There is never anything that distracts from it. The early cube-shaped iPod packages were the best at this. You’d remove the sleeve, unfold two panels, and there it was. The next fold revealed the device. That I still remember this sequence says a lot about how powerful the experience was.

Emotion

The copy itself, evokes feelings of artistry. Like this object was meticulously crafted, carefully wrapped, and bought safely to your door. It feels human, as if you received it directly from the person who so lovingly made it. Craftsmen sign their work. Master Bladesmith Bob Kramerputs his name on all his knives. Vermont Furniture Designsputs its name inside each dresser it makes. Edward Tufte advises designers to always put their name on what they make — it shows that you care about the finished product and take responsibility for it. That’s the feeling I get from this line.

Also, it wasn’t “Made by Apple in California,” it was Designed. I can’t think of another company that holds design in higher esteem or even one that touts every product as designed, not made. This might be the best expression of the company’s mission available.

California

The design comes from Cupertino, from people who obsess over it. Items may be manufactured in China, but they’re designed by Apple headquarters. And that matters to people. Plus, California evokes magic for many people — especially the California of the mid-1970’s that gave birth to Apple Computer and really, the entire personal computer revolution. Warm weather, surfing, celebrity and a free-wheeling easy lifestyle in the age of American Graffiti are not such bad things to associate your company with.

Marketing that doesn’t shout

There is an adage in graphic design that goes something like this:

If you want to make something stand out in your design, make it big. If it needs to stand out even more, make it bold. Still not enough? Make it red.

Big and bold and red epitomize the lazy designer because it always works but shows no imagination. Marketing is usually full of big and bold and red.

Yet here, Apple goes subtle. The careful design makes the statement even more powerful. Apple conveys the importance of this phrase by isolating it, so it never can be missed. It never has to compete with other elements. It’s small and elegant, just like the devices themselves. It is revealed dramatically and unexpectedly. All of these devices make this statement loud and clear without Apple ever having to raise its voice. By doing that, it sets the tone for the actual product and experience contained within.

David Andersen

on 17 Dec 10

Nice analysis; I agree. It’s powerful for all those reasons. And of course it especially helps now because ‘Apple’ has so much goodwill and brand equity.

Berserk

on 17 Dec 10

To follow on Dan’s point. It isn’t so much that the ‘design’ is better than ‘made’, but that the place where the design was made is better (from a sell point) than the place where the making took place.

Matt Wilson

on 17 Dec 10

the only way to make it more meaningful would be to see a “Built by Apple in California” somewhere with equally striking billing.

Conspeculous

on 17 Dec 10

Slow news day, I guess. Really, who cares?

SU

on 17 Dec 10

This lesson has not been lost on other industries. Companies like Specialized and Felt have been decorating their bikes in a similar way the last few years.

Sure, they’re dodging the fact their frames are built in Taiwan, but it’s equally true that they have a strong, US-based culture of design and product development.

Scott

on 17 Dec 10

...touts every product as designed, not made…

Touting the product as designed, not made was an easy choice, seeing how (as you mention) it’s not made in California. I always enjoyed this phrase on the packaging as well. Yet it’s also always felt like an attempted distraction from ‘made in China’.

Scott

on 17 Dec 10

+1 Berserk

Ron

on 17 Dec 10

SU – Specialized has been putting “Designed by Specialized in California” on their frames since at least the later 1980’s. I had a StumpJumper with that phrase on the right chainstay in 1991.

Matt

on 17 Dec 10

The Raleigh bikes I had as a kid were stamped “Designed and built in Nottingham, England”. I guess it’s not as appealing as California, though…

To me this line has always been cinematic and is meant to be the director’s credit for Apple’s overall product experience. I get the same chilling feel of anticipation when reading “Designed by Apple in California” as when I see “Directed by Steven Spielberg”—oh, this is going to be good.

I’ll take the opposing view, as a child of the Detroit area in the 70’s. I always felt like the saying was a cop out, a misdirection, a spin put on some good ‘ole flag waving. Every time I see it, it pisses me off that it doesn’t say Designed and Built by Apple in California.

It might as well say Designed by Apple in California, built in unsafe third-world working conditions in China.

David Andersen

on 17 Dec 10

I wasn’t aware that’s it’s considered a cultural faux pas that products are manufactured in Asia. Considering the level of skill it takes to build all the stuff that’s made there, I’m surprised at the snooty attitudes that prevail today. Is it economic ignorance or cultural elitism?

David Andersen

on 17 Dec 10

@Ben, what do you really know about it? I assume you boycott all products made in such conditions, and they you’re fully informed about said products and conditions.

guy gadwa

on 17 Dec 10

“Designed by Apple in California” works if you are a fan of both Apple and California. If you are neither it just comes across as pretentious.

Anonymous Coward

on 17 Dec 10

Whatever pretension you detect is a reflection of your own attitude, not theirs.

What is pretentious about saying who designed something and where it was designed?

idont

on 17 Dec 10

It is as cool as if you buy a shirt for $600 and read “Designed in Italy. Assembled in Rumania.”.

For me it only highlights that the company is driven by the finance department and the marketing team is trying to soften the angles…

I like that line too but it would be way cooler if they could also say it was made or built in California. Then it would be Apple’s own particular way of saying Made in America.

Walter Davis

on 17 Dec 10

I’ve always heard it said, “If you can’t make it good make it big…” I think that sums up the point you were making about the use of isolation vs. scale or color to make the same emphasis.

kramer

on 17 Dec 10

@David I think one aspect of ben’s issue is that it’s designed in california, but it’s built by the same people who built components my dell laptop, etc.

Francis

on 17 Dec 10

It’s the most stupid and funniest copy I have ever seen on box of a product.

David Andersen

on 17 Dec 10

@kramer – and the point is?

kramer

on 17 Dec 10

@David That’s it’s built like all the other vaporware products. Look at the examples of kramer knives and vermont furniture designs, their name is on their products because they literally made it.

David Andersen

on 17 Dec 10

@kramer – if that distinction is important to you, so be it. I could care less. Apple isn’t being deceptive. They design their products and they outsource the manufacturing, something that makes sense on several levels. Most importantly, the end result is excellent products. So it’s not as if they are made poorly.

David Andersen

There are also a more general truth in this statement about where the value of the product comes from. Some bemoan the loss of manufacturing from the United States and argue the U.S. is losing competitiveness due to this shift. In the case of Apple, quite the opposite is true: most of the value stays here in the United States even though it is manufactured all across the world. The New York times has a great breakdown of the iPod global supply chain and where the sales revenue eventually end up.

Here is the most important paragraph:

The real value of the iPod doesn’t lie in its parts or even in putting those parts together. The bulk of the iPod’s value is in the conception and design of the iPod. That is why Apple gets $80 for each of these video iPods it sells, which is by far the largest piece of value added in the entire supply chain.

If you look at where the money ends up and who is adding the most value to the product, it is the design in California that contributes the biggest chunk.

Tangentially, many Apple products have their final manufacturing in China, but a good deal of the components are built in many different places: memory in Korea, chips in the United States, hard drives in Japan, and so on.

Knaak

on 17 Dec 10

I hate seeing a product that shows “designed in” or “engineered in.” My first thought when I see something like “Designed in California” is “it must be made in China.”

To me, a company that promotes its “designed in” location is trying to hide the fact that it is made somewhere else. That company immediately loses credibility in my mind.

ralph

on 18 Dec 10

seems this is a cheap attempt to relate your business to Apple.

Zingus

on 18 Dec 10

First of all let’s consider this: Apple was usually proud of outsourcing very little.

They used to tell the tale of laborous gnomes rolling out handcrafted macs out of their Cupertino (CA) and Cork (Eire) factory. They where actually assembling pieces of equipment out of taiwan, korea, japan and yes, china.

But laborous gnomes cost a lot, don’t they? Wouldn’t you pay a little more for Genuine Apple Gnomes?

To enforce the nonsensical autharchy, they also had an horror story from the early days of running into big troubles the only one time they outsourced external floppy disk drives from start to end to Japan.

And then with the iPod, all of a sudden, they where out of the closet: “Yes, yes! WE BUILD STUFF IN CHINA! BUT WE ARE G’DDAM PROUD OF THAT! CHINA PRIDE! CHINA PRIDE!”

But the price tag remained too high for chinese stuff, so they invented the “CALIFORNIA ALL-AMERICAN GENUINE APPLE-PIE QUALITY!”

Scott

on 18 Dec 10

If you look at where the money ends up and who is adding the most value to the product, it is the design in California that contributes the biggest chunk.
- @Darren

That could be flipped on its head. That Apple pocketed $80 out of each $299 iPod is not due to maximizing design value but mostly due to minimizing production costs. They do so using labor practices that would not be tolerated for a moment in the US.

idont

That Apple pocketed $80 out of each $299 iPod is not due to maximizing design value but mostly due to minimizing production costs.

People pay $299 for an iPod because of its excellent design. Sony might spend just as little or even less money manufacturing their portable media player, but their margins will necessarily be smaller than Apple’s because they can’t charge as much for an inferior product.

Majuro

on 18 Dec 10

it’s just one of way of saying, ‘if anything goes wrong with this product (like that rusted earphone piece in the picture), blame whoever made it. but we can guarantee you we, the brand owner designed it.’

like my Lacoste cap that says, ‘Designed in France, Made in Vietnam’. it’s expensive because it’s Lacoste and we designed it in our HQ. but if a factory defect is present, it’s because it’s made in Vietnam.

Zune

Why do Apple products say ‘Designed by Apple in California’ as if California is such a great thing? I’ve never visited California, so maybe there’s something special that Steve Jobs knows that I don’t.
It wouldn’t matter to me if it said ‘Designed by Apple in Iowa.’ It’s the same product. I could see how this phrase might has an emotional appeal to someone that views California as ‘the place to be’ or wishes they lived there.

David K.

It would be nice to see some manufacturing come back to the US, but the costs aren’t even in the same league.

Grover Saunders

on 21 Dec 10

I always wondered if it was harkening back to an indie rock aesthetic. When I was in a touring band, it was common for bands to start the show by saying “We’re [BANDNAME] from [PLACE].” and then break into the first song. We talked about it a lot in almost the exact same way as we’re talking about it here, because it’s simple, and understated, but has a solid impact when followed by a great song.

Or in this case, a great product.

Paul

on 22 Dec 10

“Designed by Apple in California” is brilliant but not for the reasons stated in the post. It’s brilliant spin. It sounds much better than “Made in China” while meaning exactly that.

And why is this marketing sleight of hand important? Because of the horror stories coming from Apple’s Chinese assembly plants. Interestingly the Foxconn revelations haven’t put a dent in Apple’s ‘goodwill and brand equity’. I guess if your products look good enough nobody cares if your factories are kitted out with suicide nets. That’s the power of design right there, folks!

rado

on 22 Dec 10

Paul, the French company France Telecom has higher suicide rates than Chinese Foxconn. So there.

I wouldn’t say it’s so “subtle” – in fact, it seems rather pretentious. A lot of goods are designed in a different – and more, ahem, glamorous – a place than where they’re manufactured, but the the makers of those goods don’t bleat on about it. My sweater doesn’t say “Designed by Zara in Barcelona. Assembled [by $1-a-day workers] in Bangladesh.” Because that would be arsey. Im not trolling here – I’m an Apple fan, and typing this out on a MacBook – but I’d say the tagline more irritates, than inspires, me.

The main issue people are having has to do with where the products are made (China), and how many perceive Chinese-made products as low quality compared to say US-made ones. I myself would love to see more North American made products, but that isn’t happening any time soon, especially with electronics.

I don’t think all Chinese-made products are low quality. There are companies like Apple, Tivoli Audio, Bose, to name a few that want the best made products possible in the most cost effective manner.

Tivoli radios are also made in China, and they stated on their website “Every Tivoli Audio product is manufactured in our own factory, which affords us exceptional quality control.”

Instead of dodging the fact that products are made in China, embrace it and state that the goal is quality, regardless of where it’s made.

AKRI

on 22 Dec 10

PEOPLE..IT’S COOL BECAUSE IT’S APPLE..PERIOD!

MERRY XMAS TO ALL!

:)

David Andersen

on 22 Dec 10

@Paul – the depth of your thought would not register on an electron microscope.

Joe

on 23 Dec 10

The reason for this message might not be entirely for marketing reasons, but for legal purposes.

I’ve read that in order to go after knockoffs in court, you have to demonstrate that the infringer knowingly offered their imitation product to the same customers as the original product. Signifying the location of the company on the product itself is the simplest way to satisfy this test.

Paul

on 24 Dec 10

@John Topley – Yes, I know that Apple is just one of many that uses Foxconn. You don’t get to be Taiwan’s richest man off the back of one company alone.

Fjx01

on 24 Dec 10

Nothing beats my homegrown Apples, form my garden…! ;-)

This discussion is closed.

About Jason Z.

Jason Zimdars joined Basecamp in 2009 as a UI designer. Most recently he worked on Basecamp for iPhone and iPad. He thinks about Basecamp constantly.